NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT - G92 Takes Flight
Performance Analysis and Conclusion
Virtually across the board NVIDIA's new GeForce 8800 GT is as fast or faster than a 640MB GeForce 8800 GTS card and significantly faster than a Radeon 2900 XT, save for a couple of CrossFire/SLI enabled tests like 3DMark and Bioshock, where driver maturity is likely the limiting factor for the new NVIDIA card. From a purely a DX10 gaming perspective, the GeForce 8800 GT ran roughshod over the significantly more expensive Radeon HD 2900 XT and even outscored a GeForce 8800 GTS in more than a few spots as with our Bioshock single card testing. Finally, in terms of HD digital video processing and image quality, the GeForce 8800 GT, with its second gen PureVideo HD engine, is roughly on par with AMD's AVIVO solution currently.
NVIDIA's second foray into 65nm GPU technology is a resounding sucess in our humble opinion. And how could anyone argue a Graphics product that consumes less power, costs less and performs better than the previous genertion? The proverbial hat-trick of high tech electronics is what we're looking at when we consider all of the performance metrics we showed you today against the backdrop of price. NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT will be available in retail and e-tail immediately at an MSRP ranging from $199 to $249. Likely 256MB cards will weigh in at the lower cost price point with 512MB cards closer to the $249 tag. About the only thing we would mildly take issues with relative to this new product, is its thermal management solution that occasionally reminds you of its whiney existance.
Beyond that, for a reasonable investment, you get a product that will run just about any game engine at high resolution with support for DirectX 10 and HD digital video processing offload. In fact, for less than the cost of a single GeForce 8880 GTX, you could buy two of these cards and run them in SLI for even better performance. The real question mark is how the GeForce 8800 GT will perform versus AMD's soon to be released RV670 mid-range GPU. We're hearing stories of new 55nm, 700M transistor Radeon GPUs dancing in like sugarplums just in time for the holiday buying season. We'll have to see how this all unfolds in the weeks ahead, but for today, its all NVIDIA limelight shining down on the new cost and power-efficient GeForce 8800 GT.
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